


The fever

by SunshineSea



Series: Cole and things (drabbles) [2]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Gen, shameless purple prose honestly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-06 01:52:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16379126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineSea/pseuds/SunshineSea
Summary: "Clawing the cut up, eyes too big to see, it’s all red now, mama- it’s all red- it burns, it burns, make it stop, maker make it-“Bull asks Cole about the Inquisitor.





	The fever

“You want to know more so you can do more,” Cole said, and The Iron Bull looked curious. He was just sitting up in Cole’s little corner of the tavern, legs crossed and tankard on his knee, looking jovial and relaxed but inside he was steel. 

“Friends talk about friends all the time, kid.”

“You don’t want to talk about friends like friends talk about friends. You want to know about her to tell about her to people who want to know about her. It’s different.”  
“Is it really?” and Bull smiled then, sipping his ale. “She knows what I am, kid. She knows what I’m doing. You don’t have to talk to me, but there’s nothing sneaky going on.”  
Cole knew he wasn’t lying, but still he wrung his hands, hoping he wasn’t helping someone hurt. 

“Do you know where she comes from?” Bull asked as a way of conversation, and Cole was speaking before his lips caught up.  
“Dark, damp, sharing my bunkbed with Ani because she’s too little to be alone. Watching uncle at the table from under the covers. Maps. Daggers in them. Writhing, writing, threats to the unthreatened, there’s gold up here. There’s gold in this.”

He could feel Bull’s brain taking notes, but his eyes were kind. Cole kept talking, reaching up to the inquisitor’s bedchamber and then past her, into her, looking at all the things she left behind.

“The caves were dark but not red, the light flickered without burning. Then the fever came. Ani first, too small to fight, then mama and her mama and both their brothers, then I woke up in the bunkbed alone and gasping, grasping, wheezing, beehives in my throat. Clawing the cut up, eyes too big too see, it’s all red now, mama- it’s all red- it burns, it burns, make it stop, maker make it-“

Bull put a hand on him to bring him back, and Cole found his cheeks wet. His hands were bright white from clutching.

“Easy there…” he mumbled, sounding calm but looking worried. No one had told him much about the inquisitor’s past, other than “she used to be carta”. He could learn a lot right here. His homeland would be grateful. Cole sensed these things, and he waited until Bull did too.

“She was sick?” he finally asked, and Cole nodded.

“The world is scarlet. It’s all on fire. Can’t stand up, can’t move away, wets the bed until they stop giving her water, hunger and thirst drowned by the heat of it all, sweating, surging, stomach lurching, there’s nothing left of me now, Maker, please.”

“But she survived.”

“Comes to in the dark. Nana- sweet, sweet nana, she’s dead, isn’t she? This is the end, it’s the stone, it’s dark because I’m dead, but Nanna brings the water and the world comes back to view, heat dripping from the bridge of my nose but alive! Legs work when waking, looks for water, sleeps some more. Sleeps until the mouth of the cave opens and the bunk bed is too small and I have to keep moving- she has to go, leave, the fever took this place. It’s a world out there. Uncle went to another clan, he will know. He’ll take me in.”

Iron Bull sat silent, though his lips shaped the word “clan”, as if Cole had just confirmed something for him.


End file.
